ATHOL — It’s not a good sign when a team doesn’t punt for an entire game.
That was the case for the Athol football team in a 60-26 loss to Frontier Regional on Friday night.
Athol (2-6) moved the ball in the first half to stay with Frontier, but the defense simply could not get any stops.
Caleb Cox threw a 41-yard touchdown to Joey Gray for Athol’s longest play of the night.
“We had a couple kids out,” Athol coach Bill LaRose said. “We moved the ball in the first half. I thought it might be a little closer than that. We have two freshman (Cox and Gray) connecting on pass plays more than I have ever had. We just couldn’t stop their offense.”
Cox connected with Gray four times for 99 yards.
Garrett DeForest ran wild for the Red Hawks with 263 yards on 15 carries and five touchdowns. The game had playoff seeding implications Frontier.
“Wanted to come out with a W tonight,” DeForest said. “Just thinking of how important it is to the rest of the season. I just put my head down and kept running, wanting to put points on the board. If we lost we probably would have had the four seed.”
Frontier implemented some new looks for the game.
“I didn’t know what team was going to show up tonight,” Frontier coach Don Gordon said. “But we came through and executed. Scoring on every possession is a good thing.”
The first half featured only one punt and eight touchdowns.
DeForest scored first for Frontier on a 6-yard rushing touchdown.
Keegan Lutz followed for Athol with a 26-yard rushing touchdown to make it 6-6. Matt Hildreth scored on a 1-yard keeper for the Red Hawks to make it 12-6 at the end of the first quarter.
DeForest added three more touchdowns in the second quarter; scoring twice on the ground and another on a 39-yard shovel pass from Matt Hildreth.
For Athol, Dylan Castine scored on an 11-yard rushing touchdown while Cox tossed a 39-yard touchdown to Gray.
The score was 36-20 at halftime.
Josh Semaski scored on a 5-yard touchdown in the third quarter and added another in the fourth. In between was DeForest’s 47-yard touchdown.
Backup quarterback Tim Casavecchia hit Jacob Smith for a late touchdown for Athol.
